Here is what I consider the best sampling program – ever: hospital delivery. This could be sponsored by an advertiser, or from public donations, or you can make it your community contribution. You can do any or all of these – just do the delivery and let the sponsorships come in.

In two south-central Georgia towns about 31 miles apart, newspaper readers wanted the same thing: more than one printed edition a week, please.

That's what Boone Newspapers Inc. found out when it recently bought the Cordele Dispatch and the Americus Times-Recorder. Starting Aug. 22 in Americus and Aug. 29 in Cordele, readers got their wish.

As of this week, both papers now come out on Wednesdays and Saturdays instead of only on Fridays. And executives in both places, General Manager Chris Lewis in Cordele and Publisher William Hand in Americus, use the same word to describe community reaction: "excited."